The three new lawsuits, each filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, allege that Lee, which owns hundreds of newspapers and specialty publications in Iowa and 24 other states, is guilty of negligence, breach of an implied contract, unjust enrichment and invasion of privacy.
Lee’s Iowa newspapers include the Quad-City Times in Davenport, the Sioux City Journal, and the Muscatine Journal. It owns Nebraska papers as well, including the Omaha World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal Star and the Kearney Hub.
Each of the three lawsuits is seeking class-action status in pursuit of damages on behalf of thousands of current and former Lee employees whose personal information is believed to have been accessed by cybercriminals. The three named plaintiffs in the cases are Nicole Church of Colona, Illinois; Declan Lawson of Missoula, Montana; and Anthony Bangert of Wisconsin…